In Loving Memory

Several decades ago, I laid my mother to rest at the end of October. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her. Sometimes tears roll down my face and I think heaven is raining on me. She encouraged me to lead the wackadoodle lifestyle I ended up living. She was the best teacher I ever had even though our time together was much shorter than either of us ever expected. I was her wild child, the petunia in an onion field, riding on a unicorn, searching for a rainbow and the fabled pot of gold.

I hope and pray I made my mother proud. Lord knows I provided her a great deal of grief at times. Motherhood is a thankless job of long hours and endless love. She was a saint to put up with me, but I know she kind of enjoyed my eccentric antics. Like a rose, I gave her lots of thorns with occasional exquisite beauty thrown in for brief indulgence.

Small wonder that MOM upside down is WOW.

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it." - Mark Twain

Today I woke up alive and that amazing feat completed my bucket list.

I am so lucky and very blessed.

This picture is last night's sunset on the Crooked River in Georgia. I like to ride my bicycle down there as the sun sinks beneath the horizon. I am doing the 30 day bicycle challenge, and so far I have ridden my new bicycle every single day for 21 days in a row! A few years ago, I couldn't even walk 50 feet.

Miracles DO happen. Believe in yourself, believe in miracles. I tell myself these words of wisdom over and over.

If someone had told me in 2009 as I laid in intensive care, clinging to life that in a few short years I would live in another country, in a little old motorhome, riding a red bicycle with a puppy dog, I would have laughed myself silly and thought they were definitely hallucinating.

It's not been easy.

Easy would have been to just give up and not torture myself with getting on with life. Pick up the shattered pieces and find a way to glue what's left back together into something entirely different.


Life is goof.

And now for a bit of fun... I pirated this fanciful picture from a friend. Argh matey! (I think we all have a witchy side, a pirate beneath the surface.)

Enjoy!

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I am compiling a list of blogs that are RV, Motorhome, Travel Trailer, Fifth Wheel and Tiny Home related.

Tiny Home is anything under 400 square feet whether permanent or on wheels. 

Send me the link to your blog or the blogs you enjoy that qualify as Tiny Homes on wheels or permanent.

If your blog is about something else, I will start a separate list for those.

Use my email link above or click here to notify me, or post in the comment section below. While my comment section will flag comments with links as spam, I will read the spam folder and add your blog.

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Thank you kindly!

What To Buy A Lush For A Gift?

Christmas is around the corner.

Time to make those gift lists.

What to buy the lush?

Yepper. We all have that special friend who is happiest when stumbling drunk.

The one that shows up everywhere, happily inebriated.

What to buy her?

Well now she can have that drink with her 24/7 without worry about spilling a thing.

Get her a gift she will love so dearly, she will hold it near and dear to her heart.

Get her the The Wine Rack! (click for details)

She'll be your best friend forever.

Finally, a sensible gift for the lush in your life.

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Earth's Biggest Selection

And Sometimes Wackiest too!

Trick or Treat Awww Moment

A few weeks ago I announced my inner child had escaped.

She is no longer hiding under the bed, but out and about looking for child like activities in a full grown body.

This Halloween I've finally settled on a costume.

If I can squeeze into it.

It sure looks very comfortable.

And it suits my style... napping!

I am going to be...

***DRUM ROLL***

OK, Hint number one, it's green and brown.

Hint number two:

It's cozy and comfortable.

Hint number three:

It's crocheted.

OK, here ya go...

A picture!

Of my chosen Halloween Costume!

Of course some of you may wish to buy it for year round use.

Enjoy!

Amazon sells it here at this link. 

Oh and in case you are wondering...

I want to be a Halloween Baby Tortoise this year!

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Smile If You Woke Up Alive

It's 6:43am and I am waiting waiting waiting for the SUN RISE.

Somehow, in my tiny little brain, it's a wonderful validation, that I woke up alive and all is well. Life is good and I am blessed to have a roof over my head and food in the pantry plus many angels both earthly and heavenly, watching over me and sometimes even holding my hand when I am scared.

What we often take for granted, others are fervently praying for.

If you want to put yourself on a shopping diet, use your camera.

Take pictures of your home, be it an RV or sticks and bricks. Photograph each room at every angle possible. Download the pics and let the horror show begin!

The first thing I notice about mine, is that I need to catch up on the housekeeping and organizing. The next is, get rid of the junk. Shopping suddenly seems like a pursuit from the distant past.

And now... some fun pictures!

This was posted in downtown St Marys, Georgia. I think it's hilarious!

This is my inspiration for a Halloween mermaid good witch costume complete with trick or treat bag (dark chocolate please!)

Besides I love big hats. I am traveling with a big (faded) purple straw hat that has been to many countries and sailed quite a few boats. I wore it much of this summer for fun and shade too.

Here I am in the South Saluda River in South Carolina on a super hot humid day in a very cold river cooling off. The next day the mud cleared up, but I don't seem to have a pic of that. I was still hobbling around with a quad cane then, but it didn't stop me from hiking to the river or getting in it.

Matter of fact, on another note. It's a proven fact that communities that do not have a bicycle helmet law, have MORE people out on their bicycles. One doctor commented, that if we are going to have helmet laws for bicycles, we need to add laws for knee pads and elbow pads and shin pads and so on. He thinks helmet laws do keep more folks off their bicycles rather than on them in a community. So less laws please and more cardio bike riding for fun.

I've been looking at bicycle helmets and not pleased with the less than fashionable looks they offer. I also read that most head injuries from cycling are from car collisions. So maybe car drivers need to stop texting and pay attention. Any which way you look at it, we need MORE bicyclists on the roads, paths and sidewalks. It's very eco friendly, it's fun, it's fabulous cardio exercise with rewarding sightseeing as a bonus. It's addicting. Now that I have my new comfy bicycle, I am on it several times a day. Everything around me is falling by the wayside, but at least my cardio fitness is improving dramatically. Have I lost any weight? Good grief no, my body is bound and determined to cling to every last ounce. Maybe one day I will break the barrier, but for now, I do have very fit calves and slender ankles. Life is goof!

I found this wonderful site http://bandboxllc.com/ and this beautiful helmet I really like (pictured below). Matter of fact they have lots of stylish helmets for men and women... at a price, but it seems fair enough when you read into the work and quality that goes into each helmet.

Now THAT trendy helmet below,  I will wear and smile like the pretty bicyclist here. Yes! That is a bicycle helmet. These aren't cheap, but for the style and protection, I could be encouraged to wear one often! Keep my silly head more or less protected from injury and sun.

I am seriously thinking about sending a letter to Santa Claus and mentioning this helmet (instead of the dark chocolate).

Well, the sun is making a peek a boo appearance and I've got loads to do today.

Better start on housekeeping first!

Home sweet home, in need of tidying up!

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A Shady Person and A Sunny Life

A sultry hot day in July, evidenced by the shade, the rocker, the outdoor fan and a straw hat for strolling. Matter of fact, the white wash cloth on the red chair was being used to mop up sweat from my brow. I love the outdoors, even when hot, but nothing wrong with a few comforts either. Shown in back is my open door, but in reality, I have covered the screen door with clear plexiglass on a permanent fix. This enables me to run heat or air conditioning inside while enjoying a sunny view from the new door. I had to beef up the trim insulation to get a snug fit. Without this improvement, I would have to close the main door and only have the tiny window for natural daylight.

I'm a shady person who craves a sunny life.

The above picture is from July 2015 when I camped at Kings Mountain State Park on the North Carolina and South Carolina border. I've always said my RV was a tree hugger. In this case, the trees appear to be supporting our awning. Indeed the left tree is barely 3 inches from the awning frame and the right one is 2 inches away. But by golly, we got that awning up and out!

About that water bag.

I bought two identical collapsible water bags from Amazon. Each is 10 liters or 10.5 quarts. When full, 10 liters of water weighs about 22 pounds.

In high winds, my awning has been known to take flight, damaging the frame and struts. Sometimes there just isn't enough time to collapse the awning before a gust of wind tries to rip it away. One day while out hiking around a campground, I noticed a motorhome camper sitting under his awning with water jugs attached. They were not touching the ground, but suspended by a rope from the awning frame. I struck up a conversation with the occupant who explained that since he started doing this method, he had no trouble with his awning taking flight on windy days.

I don't buy any bottled water, because I use a Berkey purifier for my drinking and cooking needs (absolutely the best drinking water ever!). So initially when I finished off a bottle of bleach and a bottle of laundry soap, I filled these with water to weigh down the awning but each one was barely a half gallon (4 pounds) and windier days needed more weight. Soon I had multiple bottles of recycled garbage with water inside suspended. It worked but looked like I was dangling my garbage. Also, there was a problem with storage of same when I packed up camp.

My motorhome is tiny and the basement storage is minimal. Add to that I have too many tools, assorted chairs and squeezing in garbage bottles full of water was a bit problematic. Since we were planning to camp at some Federal parks that didn't offer up the convenience of campsite water spigots but rather public spigots, I decided to buy these collapsible water bags.

They worked great at the waterless campsites, we could haul over extra water if our tank ran dry. On the other hand, we could hang them from the awning to prevent wind damage. When packing up camp, I just find a needy bush or tree, spill out the water for nourishment of same, then pack the now flattened jugs.

Eureka!

I love it when a plan comes together. I just wish the water bags were clear instead of blue, but what the heck, it works. In most cases, I only need fill the water bags about half full to achieve awning insurance.

Give a goofy person a problem and they come up with a doable solution.

Many folks stake their awning with straps and jumbo screws twisted into the ground. I tried that method previously and discovered getting those jumbo screws back out of the ground was way too difficult for me. I regifted the scews, since I no longer use them. Ironically, they had been gifted to me from a hoarder in a campground who liked to hand out his excess.

That's another story... years back when I was new at this and living on a frighteningly tiny budget, I met a delightful couple that worked part time in an RV park where they lived fulltime. The husband did part time handy man work. Matter of fact, I was traveling with a brand new kitchen faucet that had defeated my installation skills. He installed it for a pittance then brought his wife over for me to meet.

Harley dog had been adopted just a week or two earlier and they were having a grand time with my puppy. Matter of fact, I had to be gone 3 days in a row for 8 hours each day and I was looking for puppy day care since at that young age, he couldn't control his bladder for more than a scant few hours. The couple happily begged me to let them keep him while I was gone. They refused all payment, but I bought them a half bushel of fresh peaches I found one day in my commute. Turns out they love peaches, so all was well.

Harley spent three days camping at their trailer and in the afternoons, I rushed over to collect my baby and visit with the eccentric couple. Mind you they had birds, cats and dogs of their own living in their tiny home, so one more puppy just seemed like more fun to them.

They decided I was living quite frugally and sought to load me up with useful gifts. They had this campsite that looked like an RV store explosion. Turns out they were avid dumpster divers and they had amassed quite a lot of camping supplies.  Next thing I knew, they were loading up a wheel barrel with with all sorts of useful things, a water hose, a sewer hose, the tie down screws, straps, ropes and so on. Whatever space was left in my basement, they filled it up with used useful RV goodies.

Ironically, I've never made it back to that RV park, but I think of that week in great fondness, the special friendship and the huge amount of help they offered this newbie.

Life is goof.

Ponderances of a Complicated World

I know I am a one-off with wild ideas about day to day life. Some days I feel like the only lonely unicorn, looking for an elusive unicorn to ease that feeling of "you are not alone".

Mermaiding began to save me from persecution. Sounds weird, but before the internet, many small countries were able to actively control the news media. Now with the internet, word gets out from the denizens of what is really happening. That was on a small island and now I am in the wonderful USA.

Conform conform conform...
It seems in this complicated country we are constantly being asked to conform conform conform as if individuality is a thing of the past to be stomped out and eradicated. Many basic rights are eroded, a plethora of far too many ridiculous laws are being added to the books while none of the outdated laws are being removed. Police departments are being beefed up for marshal law. If I hear another 911 excuse... I could possibly scream at the top of my lungs. It seems to be the excuse for everything... because of 911... your personal freedoms have nearly vanished.

I personally think it should have been a wakeup call to pull back on fighting overseas wars and bring back the troops. Focus more on protecting our borders and rebuilding our failing infrastructure. Let the other countries worry about their own problems and quit poking our nose into them trying to be the end all, while our homeland suffers. (I bet if you are reading this, you can think of a dozen roads you have driven recently that are in serious need of repairs. )

OK, I shouldn't discuss politics or religion here, cause it opens up a can of worms and stress that I might not be able to deal with. So I offer up my apologies!

Now I will focus on RV's and their designers. Are they depressed and colorless?

I've been looking at new and used RV's for fun. It's great entertainment and costs little to "go look". What I am seeing is RV's designed by depressing folks in windowless cubicles who have a great need for excessive large TV's and fake wood.

It would seem they are designing RV's in depressing colors with scant windows and humongous TV's. In one case in a small Class C, the salesman was drooling, he was so excited that the RV came with SIX TV's. Yepper, if I had not seen it myself, I would think it was  a weird fantasy!

If you need 6 TV's to go camping... why bother? Just stay home with your comforts.

I find TV's to be brainwashing. I want independent creative thought, so I tend to stay away from them. Sure, I've been known to watch TV when I am sick and maybe that's why I sort of detest them. A TV reminds me of being ill. (I think they can make you ill too! All that overly sensational news... I hear better stuff gossiping over coffee. I want to giggle... not cry!)

The cave.

I want an RV with lots of sunshiny windows, I want to SEE my world, not hide from it. If I need to hide, I can close the curtains or lower the shades. So why are so many newer RV's being built with scant few windows, some tinier than a pizza box?

I will trade excessive storage and ridiculously large TV's in the name of having big sunny windows.

I can live with less and do more.

Colors.

Color my world... please!

What's wrong with designing a colorful RV? I've seen so many depressing neutral color schemes. Dark shades, dark wood, dark upholstery, dark carpets. Yucky poo! Some of us want eye candy, we don't want a neutral ho-hum life. Many folks use their RV's to travel to warmer weather, so what's with all the dark wintry colors? I am confused on this issue.

And please... I am NOT trying to insult anyone and their taste in their own RV, I just wish the designers and manufacturers would put on their creative colorful caps and offer up some diverse choices. Some of us want happy joyful colors in our day to day lives.

Fake wood. I am so sick and tired of fake wood. matter of fact, I want to paint over all the fake wood in my RV. Nothing wrong with creamy pastel colors as a backdrop for a sunny life. Put the optimism back in decor!

I guess all in all, I want a shady place for a sunny person; me!

Enough ranting...

I am happy enough in my little old motorhome. I keep patching, repairing, upgrading, so that I feel comfortable and in love with it.

I ran into someone that fell out of love with their RV so they are punishing it now by refusing to make any needed repairs. Somehow this doesn't work for me. I have trouble wrapping my head around that idea. I feel sorry for the "punished" RV.

For months I had a great friend traveling with me. He likes being busy, so lucky for me, he willingly completed many of my started projects. I tend to be slow and sometimes weak, so projects are taking me longer and longer. Even worse, I shattered my wrist and healing is taking a lot longer than I had hoped, but I torture it every day with exercise and therapy. (OUCH!)

I have a bad habit of collecting up parts and supplies for future projects, some which might be classified as whimsical, others as necessary. Sometimes I actually get the project started and eventually finished. It's more or less pretty and functional. My friend has a much better skill set and sheer strength. So he cobbled together many of my wild ideas and used up much of my inventory of to-do parts, supplies and wishes. Wow! I owe him many many thanks.

And I owe many many angels like you mega thanks for providing the funding for the parts and supplies. THANK YOU!

Some things you wouldn't even notice, but I know they are there. Like we took all the rust off the hidden propane tank and painted it bright white. It looks brand new... if you open the storage locker to stare at it.

Well, I have to go exercise the dog, then exercise me on the bicycle in between fog and rain.

Life is goof.

I woke up alive with an RV full of semi-finished projects and life is really quite wonderful.

Please pardon my rants!

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Day 6 Bicycle All Blinged Up and Ready to Ride

Help!

My inner child has escaped.

Description:

She's startling the neighborhood, flying by on a Dream 24, Day 6 cranberry red bicycle with assorted baskets, often a puppy in tow. You can spot her with a bandanna tied across her forehead holding back hip length long hair and a big goofy grin on her face. Known for colorful bike shorts and Candace Crocs on the souls of her feet. Wears prescription dark glasses. If inner child is found, approach with giggles, return before dark. No questions asked. Can often be lured with peanut butter chocolate or mint ice cream. Last seen pedaling away on this bicycle. 

This is my new ride and I am so excited! By the way, my old Schwinn sold within an hour of listing it for sale, I am totally amazed. Even better, it was less than 3 years old, but sold for a third of original cost. Not bad!

Pictured above is my brand new Dream 24, Day 6. This is the smaller frame, with 24 speeds. As you can see, I've been busy tricking it out. Most of the fluff I pulled off my old Schwinn.

I guess you could say I've converted it to a touring bike!

Here's the equipment list with links to the source:

Day 6, Dream 24 Semi-Recumbent Comfort Bicycle in Cranberry Red
The ultra plush comfy seat comes with a built-in zippered backpack (how cool is that?)

Front wheel electric conversion kit with 20 mile battery

Wicker Front Basket with quick release bracket and handle

Brass Bike Bell (Ding! Ding! Here I come, ready or not!)

Stainless Steel Bicycle Cup Holder

Front  LED Bike Light with Strobe, High and Low Beam with 360 tilt and swivel

Rear Panniers,  Dual Wicker Baskets with hooks and handles

Lubricated Chain by White Lightning Clean Ride

Leather grips with leather streamers

Other than that, I don't have much bling on my bicycle. Although, I am seriously smitten with this bud vase for the handlebars! It's on my wish list.

Oh and I kind of forgot the most important thing!

Love thy neighbor... but lock up the bicycle.

Whimsical St Marys in Georgia (Part Two)

More on whimsical St Marys in Georgia on the Crooked River, meanwhile I haven't much time to write, it's perfect bicycling weather and I got places to be and fun to do while pretending to exercise!

If you woke up alive, be grateful and thank the higher power. Everything we have, someone else is wishing for or praying for, so it's Sunday a day of thanks.

 

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It's That Time of Year to Treat!

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Whimsical St Marys Georgia (Part One)

We took the motorhome out for a spin in search of downtown St Marys, Georgia.

This must be it!

A town with a since of humor and civility.

Moe to come!

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Halloween

Delivered to your door!

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